BearX220

A few years ago my young son and I were flying PWM-JFK. We passed through the single WTMD checkpoint quickly and easily and went down to the JetBlue gate, where a mechanical quickly shaped up. When the B6 GA announced a six-hour delay we ran back landside to the Delta check-in counter and bought two walk-up, one-way tickets to JFK. The BPs came up SSSS. When we returned to the single WTMD checkpoint, the same TSA crew that had processed us so quickly and calmly before went to town on us, although nothing had changed. They pulled our carry-ons apart, went over my son with a fine-tooth comb... the whole 15-minute deal. Even though they recognized us from an hour earlier.

I realized later that if I'd kept the DL BPs in my back pocket and just shown the non-SSSS'd passes for the delayed JetBlue flight a second time, nothing untoward would have happened.

DeafBlonde

Hindsight really is 20/20, eh?

Intrepid

Diverting from SSSS.
I went through security at ORD yesterday. The lines for security were loooonnngg. Most pax were directed to go through backscatter equipment. That is the reason for the long lines. The officer took away my boarding pass. OK. I get through the machine (OK), and a young TSA officer has to pat alomst all of us. Pat, pat, pat.
I am wrecking my brains to figure out a psycho-analytic explanation to the obssession for body patting/touching strangers at an airport.
I hope he enjoyed it. One less recipient of unemployment benefits with funds borrowed from China....

Exleftseat

Showed up for my return flight to PHL on US in Envoy class. Before getting to the ticket counter I am greeted by a male who introduces himself as US Airways security. He needs to ask us some question, the same dumb and stupid questions as always. Who packed the bags, where were the bags, did someone put something in our bags, are their explosives in our bags, maybe weapons? We answer to his satisfaction. Then he sees my cane. When did you have surgery? I am stumped, what does he mean? You are walking with a cane, when did you have surgery? I respond that in my country surgery is not a prerequisite to walk with a cane and that I find his question inappropriate. He doesn't like that and walks away to three other "security agents" which are strategically placed at three far away corners of the gate area. He points at me, they huddle, it seems quite official. I am worried, not! He eventually returns, returns my passport and disappears. I proceed to the counter and check in. After the agent prints the boarding pass, she mumbles something like "security" gets up and walks away towards the official gate keepers in the three corners. After a while she returns again and hands me the boarding pass. It's conveniently marked "SSSS". Never knew they do this overseas as well. Now I am excited and curious to see what happens next. We walk through security, nothing special. Laptops out, shoes on, WTMD. We move towards the lounge. The flight is called and we move on. There at the end of the terminal another checkpoint. And my little friend is there waiting for me. He can barely contain his excitement, 20 feet away he waves at me and announces "special security". I am positioned next to the counter, a private security guard is assigned to me. A group of female security agents is busy looking at their cellphones and exchanging information, it must be hilarious, they are besides themselves. My little friend tries to get their attention, they ignore him until his third try. My boarding pass is scrutinized, then my passport is handed to a member of the civil guard, who slowly, very slowly moves to a computer about 50 feet away. It takes him about 10 minutes until he returns with pages and pages of names, mine wasn't on there. It's o.k. My wife has taken the carry on and already moved on, taking snapshots of this drama. Now I have to follow the security guard. Halfway between the checkpoint and the gate area, right next to a restaurant is another x-ray machine. 8 people, who are still half asleep from doing nothing, are aroused and get into action. My coat, the muffler, shoes and the cane need to go on the belt, eight pair of eyes observing. Another agent uses a portable wand to check me out. To everyone's surprise they find nothing and they reluctantly let me go. Now ending on an up note, imagine this : Right before the counter where they check your boarding pass there are 5 vending machines which dispense water, soft drinks etc. What a comedy. You are invited to bring your bottles on board. Why, why, why do we have to surrender our bottles during the extra gate check at so many other airports???

exbayern

Why? You can thank the US government for that.

I don't consider it that many airports, to be honest. I have never had to surrender a bottle at the airports listed on FT, most likely because I was not flying a US carrier to the US.

Exleftseat

I agree. But the whole thing is just so inconsistent. The above ( bottles welcome ) happened on a flight from MAD to PHL on a U.S. carrier, USAirways.
On my UA flight to LAX out of HKG as well as an OZ flight out of ICN to
LAX, bottles were confiscated during the additional gate check.

exbayern

And I don't recall a single time I had a bottle confiscated, although I don't recall flying Asia to US, just Europe to US, on a US carrier.

I do see such signs every now and again in some airports but they have never applied to me.

Avoiding US carriers, and avoiding flying to the US, does make life much better if one can do it. Sadly, I realise that some of you cannot. (But even then, my last flight from CDG to the US on a US carrier was perfectly 'normal', and despite reports of otherwise on FT, shoe removal was not required)

TheGolfWidow

You must have felt very safe from yourself by the time you boarded.

goalie

Are you sure this person was USAirways security and not someone from the TSA doing their "highly touted" behavior detection analysis? Also, if anyone (n.b. anyone) at a U.S. airport* comes up to me and says "I am with XXX and I need to ask you some questions", the first words out of my mouth are "Ok, but may I see your I/D first"** and then proceed to write down the I/d information.

*Foreign airports are a different animal as "different countries, different rules" but in the U.S., I am entitled to know who I am speaking to/with.

**my mom and dad always brought me up not to talk to strangers .

Exleftseat

This sort of questioning is the norm for U.S. bound flights at European airports for decades now, so nothing new. These guys are definitely not TSA.

rkvalvaa

Yes, In most cases these pre-boarding check points are manned by private security firms like G4, Securitas etc. Did a short trip to the US last year, via AMS to MSP, and only took with me a small carry-on bag, no checked luggage. That was a bad idea, the interview suddenly became a lot more complex :-)

exerda

I got SSSS'd on BKK-NRT and NRT-LAX a couple of months ago, but oddly enough, not on LAX-IAD on the same trip.

BKK-NRT: No extra security attention whatsoever.

NRT-LAX: Pulled out of line and made to wait and undergo inspection of shoes. WTH? NRT security guy claimed that US DHS had flagged several pax on the flight for extra security inspections. Very professional (far more so than TSA!), but annoying for the delay.

I had asked in NRT about the SSSS and to have it removed, but the UA RCC agent claimed it was put there "by DHS" and there was nothing they could do.

Sigh.

Vidiot

I had to surrender a water bottle bought in-terminal at CAI, flying EgyptAir to AMM. I'd thought I was okay because I'd cleared the first security checkpoint (before you check in for your flight) and then bought the water. But the second checkpoint, at the individual gate, wouldn't let even a sealed bottle through.

MavSeven

I was thoroughly unimpressed with the way the second security line was set up when I flew out of MAD last July. It seemed like they were trying to imitate the TSA, and succeeded. And thus failed.

bseller

My GF got SSSS'd coming back on a CO flight from BZE to IAH. We asked about whether they could remove it for a CO Plat, but the blank stare we got back from the contracted (?) employee suggested that it was a simpler process to just undergo the screening.

Does anyone know if the "new" UA will proactively replace SSSS BP's with 'non-SSSS' BP's???

Thanks!! Dave